West Orange High School football coach arrested

The football coach for the West Orange High School football team was arrested Monday, Jan. 21, and charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon in a domestic violence case.

The Winter Garden Police Department arrested Robert Curtis Head, at 4:37 a.m. Monday. He was booked into Orange County Jail with no bond.

Head, 44, has been employed as the team’s head coach for about six years. Previously, he was the head football coach at Olympia High School. 

According to the affidavit for Head’s arrest warrant, a Winter Garden officer responded to Head’s home, located on Turningwind Lane, Sunday night in reference to a battery. Upon arriving at the residence, the officer was flagged down by Head’s son, who told the officer his mother had been struck by his father, according to the arrest affidavit. 

After entering the home, the officer saw Head’s wife lying on her stomach and bleeding from her head. She was awake, but seemed out of it and couldn’t recall what happened.

Located next to her was a wooden decorative window frame with a wrought-iron decoration that seemed to have been taken from a kitchen wall, the officer reported in the affidavit. 

According to Head’s son, his parents were arguing while he was upstairs. He heard several loud bangs, as if things were being thrown around the home, but remained upstairs until he heard his father leave the home. The son then went downstairs and found his mother injured and called police.

Head’s wife said they had gone to dinner with a few friends to celebrate her birthday and had a short argument that they ended before leaving dinner. However, when they returned home, the argument continued and a physical fight ensued.

According to the report, the bedroom was torn apart. The bed had a broken bedpost, and there were broken vases and a broken candlestick by the doorway. The candlestick also had remains of what looked to be hair. Before the fight ensued, Head’s wife threw a plastic plate at Head in the kitchen, according to the affidavit. As she began to walk away from Head, she was struck in the back of the head.

Head’s wife refused to press charges, according to the incident report. 

According to Orange County Public Schools officials, the district may decide to place employees on administrative leave if there is an open internal investigation, but it won’t launch an internal investigation because Head’s actions did not involve another OCPS employee or student, said Lorena Arias, assistant director for media relations.